October 2014

Byline Watch

January 14, 2009

A few days ago, we ran an important item on the assassination of Lasantha Wickramatunga, editor of Sri Lanka's Sunday Leader newspaper and a major critic of the government. Like other things Sri Lankan, Lasantha's death may not resonate far beyond the island: to outsiders, this may seem to be a bit verse in yet another epic ethnic conflict. But even if you read nothing else about Sri Lanka, please read the piece below, printed by his paper after his death.

It was, in a sense, Lasantha's final work, an essay he wrote with the understanding that he would be killed for what he did. If, as a journalist, you've fretted about your pay, or job security, or career prospects, read Lasantha's words and remember this: at its finest, its most tenacious, journalism is heroic.

I have read it twice--once at work, and a second time on the subway--and each time, it broke me.

And Then They Came for Me

By Lasantha Wickramatunga

No other profession calls on its
practitioners to lay down their lives for
their art save the armed forces and, in Sri
Lanka, journalism. In the course of the past
few years, the independent media have
increasingly come under attack. Electronic
and print-media institutions have been
burnt, bombed, sealed and coerced. Countless
journalists have been harassed, threatened
and killed. It has been my honour to belong
to all those categories and now especially
the last.

I have been in the business of journalism a
good long time. Indeed, 2009 will be The
Sunday Leader's 15th year. Many things have
changed in Sri Lanka during that time, and
it does not need me to tell you that the
greater part of that change has been for the
worse. We find ourselves in the midst of a
civil war ruthlessly prosecuted by
protagonists whose bloodlust knows no
bounds. Terror, whether perpetrated by
terrorists or the state, has become the
order of the day. Indeed, murder has become
the primary tool whereby the state seeks to
control the organs of liberty. Today it is
the journalists, tomorrow it will be the
judges. For neither group have the risks
ever been higher or the stakes lower.

Why then do we do it? I often wonder that.
After all, I too am a husband, and the
father of three wonderful children. I too
have responsibilities and obligations that
transcend my profession, be it the law or
journalism. Is it worth the risk? Many
people tell me it is not. Friends tell me to
revert to the bar, and goodness knows it
offers a better and safer livelihood.
Others, including political leaders on both
sides, have at various times sought to
induce me to take to politics, going so far
as to offer me ministries of my choice.
Diplomats, recognising the risk journalists
face in Sri Lanka, have offered me safe
passage and the right of residence in their
countries. Whatever else I may have been
stuck for, I have not been stuck for choice.

But there is a calling that is yet above
high office, fame, lucre and security. It is
the call of conscience.

January 08, 2009

Daniel Sorid's the heretic we once wrote about (also, a former reporter for Reuters, now with the AP), who suggested tourists traveling to India skip the Taj. Currently, he's a Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia Journalism, and he's written an article in The New York Times, about the development of online content and applications for non-English users. I've pasted some excerpts below, but first I asked him how he got the story.

Here's what he said:

I study Hindi, and my tutor and I got to speaking about the challenge
of typing in Devanagari script. That's when I came across Google's
global language initiative, and realized the massive investments going
into removing language barriers for the next billion Web users in
places like India, China and the Middle East.

From there, it became apparent that a shortage of quality content in
non-English languages was holding back the growth of computing in many
developing countries. India, which has as much linguistic diversity as
Europe, is Google's home base for many of its global language programs,
so it made for an ideal setting for a story of this kind. It helped
that I speak some Hindi, and that I worked in India for Reuters and saw
how friends would blend languages on their Orkut pages and in e-mails,
and how support staff who hadn't studied in English-medium schools
struggled to communicate in their native tongues.

The next chapter of the World Wide Web will not be written in English
alone. Asia already has twice as many Internet users as North America,
and by 2012 it will have three times as many. Already, more than half
of the search queries on Google come from outside the United States.

The article zeroes in on an entrepreneur near Bangalore, Ram Prakash Hanumanthappa:

Mr. Ram Prakash learned English as a teenager, but he still prefers
to express himself to friends and family members in his native Kannada.
But using Kannada on the Web involves computer keyboard maps that even
Mr. Ram Prakash finds challenging to learn.So in 2006 he
developed Quillpad, an online service for typing in 10 South Asian
languages. Users spell out words of local languages phonetically in
Roman letters, and Quillpad’s predictive engine converts them into
local-language script. Bloggers and authors rave about the service,
which has attracted interest from the cellphone maker Nokia and the attention of Google Inc., which has since introduced its own transliteration tool.

December 12, 2008

We recently heard from National Public Radio's Madhulika Sikka about how her network managed its coverage of the Mumbai attacks (NPR's Comprehensive Coverage). In that post we also noted all the reporting done by NPR's New Delhi correspondent, Philip Reeves. He just sent us his own thoughts on covering the attacks - including how his job was in some ways made easier - and offers a critique of the media's handling of the crisis. These are his personal thoughts, and don't represent NPR.On the assignment and its challenges:

The assault on Mumbai was not an easy assignment. It unfolded
on multiple fronts. There were three sieges at once. There were
hundreds of unanswered questions. The attacks raised key issues -
domestic politics, geopolitics, security, international terrorism,
economics and more. All sorts of conflicting claims filled the air
waves - as always happens in the aftermath of attacks. All had to be
treated with care. The Indian and international electronic have grown a
great deal in recent years: Officials were overwhelmed with a flood of
demands for instant information. There were so many reporters and
cameramen that it was simply impossible at times to get anywhere near
some of the officials involved, because they were swamped and drowned
out by yelling. The demand for material from NPR headquarters was
naturally very high; the story could hardly have been more important,
or more dramatic.

On access, and the kindness of strangers:

However, some of the conditions in Mumbai were helpful. One
was the amazing candour and generosity of the Mumbai people. They were
willing, in this time of tragedy, to spend time talking about what
happened, and what it might mean. They offered help in finding places;
advice about who to talk to, and more. Another was the access we all
had. You could see a fair amount of what was going on. For a radio
correspondent, this is obviously important: it means I was able at
times to describe the scene with a fair amount of detail. And I was
able to get close enough to hear and record the battles as they played
out; this also helped me convey a picture of events to the audience.

December 05, 2008

During the Mumbai attacks we tried to highlight resources for journalists and others. Our goal now is to look at some of the coverage itself. We asked a few questions of Madhulika Sikka, the Deputy Executive Producer of NPR's Morning Edition (see below). The show (independent of other NPR programming) has an audience of about 13 million people, making it the most listened-to radio program in America, after the Rush Limbaugh show.

NPR's coverage was anchored by Philip Reeves, its New Delhi correspondent. Here are some of his reports from Mumbai and its aftermath (full list here), ending with his earliest reports:

In response to a few of our questions, Madhulika gave us a window into NPR's work, in coordinating its reporters and commentators from around the world:

On the overall coverage:

We approached this as we would any breaking news story, try and provide the most up-to-date information we could (on a major holiday I might add), but also provide some context. This was complicated by the fact that it was an ongoing story that lasted three days and obviously it was
constantly changing.

October 29, 2008

Hasan is an American-Muslim who hopped from the Democrats to the Independents and now, is a registered Republican. But she'll tell you she's politically moderate. She is a pro-choice, pro-immigration reform voter and believes that an Obama presidency would be extraordinary, but she also happens to have a crush on Todd Palin. And so she's - still - undecided.

Hasan is the author of Why I am a Muslim and American Muslims: The New Generation and an upcoming book titled Red, White and Muslim: A Memoir in Belief. But she had never considered herself politically savvy, until now.

She is one of six bloggers with Glamour magazine's blog Glamocracy--a 2008 election blog dedicated to displaying American women from various walks of life, and sharing their perspectives with readers on the upcoming election.

"They could have picked anyone," says Hasan, "a non-Muslim, a writer, so it's a real acknowledgment. And it’s Glamour—they could have asked me to write about car mechanics and I would have said ‘yes.’"

Hasan's blog focus on the McCain campaign, but isn't a Republican blog. She writes about her likes and dislikes of both the McCain and Obama camp and her posts reflect her background as an American-Muslim woman. Her ‘torn’ positions might be what generate as much as 40 comments per post.

October 23, 2008

After four years of covering South Asia, New York Times Delhi bureau chief Somini Sengupta is set to leave her post in a few months, making way for Pulitzer Prize-winner Jim Yardley, who shuffles over from the Beijing bureau. The moves are part of a major re-ordering of the paper's foreign bureaus. From a note sent out by Times Foreign Editor Susan Chira (reproduced in full below):

After four productive, hectic years covering an exploding story in India and the region, Somini Sengupta will be leaving New Delhi and moving with her husband to Amsterdam, where he is taking up an exciting new job running Doctors without Borders operations in the Netherlands. Somini has flung herself around the region from India to Pakistan to Nepal to Sri Lanka, infusing each story with her elegant prose, eye for detail and passion for social issues. Somini's series about water use shows how to combine coverage of big challenges for India with an intimate look at their concrete effect on real lives. When her husband's job winds down, we'll be able to discuss future assignments.

Yardley will be part of an expanding Delhi bureau (amazingly enough, given the shrinking state of newsrooms) that will also include West Africa correspondent Lydia Polgreen. She sent us this note from Dakar:

I am incredibly excited. India is an extraordinary story, and now is a
great time to be covering it. I think Jim Yardley and I will bring
really different perspectives on India coming from two different
directions, China and Africa, which is great. My experiences covering
the remarkable struggle of Africans and their leaders to pull the
continent into the 21st century will surely inform my coverage of
India, which has made it much further along that path but faces many
more struggles along the way. But India is a story unlike any other, so
I will approach it as so many millions have over the ages: As a humble,
inquisitive seeker of knowledge about this vast and fascinating
civilization. It is also really great that we'll be expanding our
presence in India. It is a testament to how important the story is that
even at this time of uncertainty in our business the Times is doubling
down on India. I am hoping to make the move early next year.

More on Yardley and Polgreen, from Chira's note:

Jim's work in China has helped set a standard in how to conceptualize, report, and write a narrative-based series. And in the last year, as China became an urgent news story as well as a fertile source of grand themes, Jim worked nearly around the clock, collaborating on groundbreaking stories about the Olympics, the Sichuan earthquake, the uproar over Tibet, the burgeoning food and quality scandals, and much more. Michael Wines and Sharon LaFraniere, as previously announced, will replace Jim in Beijing. They have been in language training this year.

And further down:

For years, we have been wanting to expand the number of reporters we assign to India, given its growing importance as a regional and economic powerhouse, and we were finally able to manage another Delhi slot. Lydia will be ending a distinguished tour of West Africa, where she brought her incisive mind, fresh eye, and a willingness to trek pretty much to the ends of the earth -- through jungles, into mines, with rebels, you name it -- to get to the story. She has won widespread admiration for her coverage of Sudan and Darfur, where she managed to take well-trodden ground and consistently break new stories, deepening our understanding of the complexity of the conflict. Her refusal to accept easy categorizations has defined her entire coverage of Africa.

October 10, 2008

Last Tuesday, Sen. John McCainmet with the editorial board of the Des Moines Register in a bid to once again obtain the paper's endorsement. (In December, shortly before the Iowa caucuses, the Register endorsed McCain and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to be the nominees of their respective parties.) As newsoutletswidelyreported, and as you can see for yourself in the video to the right, the interview at times became somewhat contentious.

You can feel it in the clenched muscles in his throat, the narrowing of his eyes, the controlled tone with
which he handles a question he doesn't like, as if struggling to contain something that might spill out. We've seen that body language on TV. But around a Des Moines Register table Tuesday, the anger and tension were palpable. And unsettling.

McCain's volatility has been written and whispered about by staff and Senate colleagues: the mercurial temper, the quixotic outbursts of reproach, then jocularity. But those alleged episodes were behind the scenes. The combative, prickly McCain we saw was seeking the Register's endorsement. He already got it in the caucuses.

He took frequent offense at questions, characterizing them as personal viewpoints of the questioners rather than legitimate topics. True, he was asked some tough, pointed questions about his running mate and his honesty. But America is having those discussions, and you'd expect he'd be ready, not defensive. It takes a thick skin to be president. [link]

The entire column is available here, and video of the entire interview (which runs just under an hour) is available here. Basu answered three quick questions about the McCain interview:

SAJAforum: Compared to what you describe in your column, what was McCain's
temperament like during his meeting with the Register's editorial board
last fall, in advance of the caucuses?

October 02, 2008

[With coverage of the financial crisis booming among South Asian journalists in the US and beyond it's time for a resurrection of our Byline Roundup, as compiled by new SAJAforum contributor Meena Thiruvengadam...]

As a business reporter covering the U.S. Treasury for Dow Jones Newswires in Washington, D.C., these are some of the bylines I've been paying attention to in order to keep track of the credit crisis. You'll find some SAJA regulars as well as a few new names who've been distinguishing themselves with their recent work. If you've got a story you'd like
us to highlight on this or another topic in a future edition of byline roundup, e-mail arunvenu [at] gmail.com

Neil Shah of The Wall Street Journal's London bureau has been tracking the performance of European stocks, the fallout of the Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. bankruptcy and the actions of Europe's central bankers. Among his Journal bylines in recent weeks is this piece from Wednesday: "Ireland, "France Aid Banks, as Jitters Go Global."

Krishna Guha, Washington-based U.S. economics editor for the Financial Times has been closely following the actions of the U.S. Federal Reserve and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. Among his many recent bylines is "Political impasse places onus firmly on the Fed", which examines actions the Federal Reserve may need to take in order to stabilize financial markets after the U.S. House of Representatives failed to pass a $700 billion financial industry rescue package early this week.

Sudeep Reddy, Washington-based economics reporter for The Wall Street Journal and alumnus of SAJAforum's Byline Roundup, has also had a busy few weeks in bylines. Among his work is this look from Sept. 29 at what the total taxpayer cost of the proposed bailout could be: "Ultimate Cost of Plan To Take Years To Determine".

Aparajita Saha-Bubna, a New York area reporter for Dow Jones Newswires, has been covering the plights of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, placed under the watch of the Federal Housing Finance Authority early this month, and the efforts of big three automakers seeking government assistance. Saha-Bubna a few weeks ago provided this insightful look at losses Fannie and Freddie employees faced as the companies' share values plummeted: "Fannie, Freddie Employees Suffer Losses As Stocks Plummet". In Wednesday's edition of the WSJ, she looked at automakers hope for a piece of the bailout pie: "U.S. Auto Makers Seek Bailout for Bad Car Loans".

I began doing stand-up to educate my fellow Americans about my religion. I wanted to show that Sikhs were not fanatical Muslims. I laced jokes with facts conveying that 99 percent of people with turbans in America were Sikhs, that Sikhism started in India 500 years ago and was now the fifth largest religion in the world. We believed in one God and equality for all, regardless of race, color, gender, religion and caste. But I was not funny.

I started reading books on stand-up comedy. After performing on each new-talent night, I stayed till the end to watch other comics and studied the audience to see how each age group reacted differently. At home I watched professional comedians on Comedy Central for hours and changed my material, making it more biting and provocative. <snip>

I now wanted to show the entire audience that Indians, Muslims or brown people in general were affable and moderate. Because I received my first couple of threats from Sikhs, I had to convince myself that my fellow Sikhs were in fact also moderate. But it felt strangely exciting reading the verbal barbs posted on my first YouTube clip: I was having an impact.

An impact perhaps, but judging from the article, not necessarily the funny kind. A sampling:

SAJAer Aisha Sultan, the home and family editor of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, has a column this weekend discussing what she calls the "Palin Paradox," the irony of Republican vice presidential nominee Gov. Sarah Palin's intense support among social conservatives who, not long ago, might have "pilloried" a woman and mother who made the kinds of choices that Palin has made in her career:

There was a time when [Phyllis] Schlafly would have argued that raising a family
of five children required a mother's full, undivided attention and was
the most important job to which Palin could ever commit. In fact,
Schlafly built her legacy by producing tomes of arguments proclaiming
that a woman's primary responsibility is to serve the head of the
household, her husband, and raise their children.

In her 1984 book critiquing the feminist movement, "Feminism
Fantasies," Schlafly came down hard on mothers who leave their
child-rearing responsibilities to further their own careers: "The
flight from home is a flight from self, from responsibility, from the
nature of woman, in pursuit of false hopes and fading fantasies."

Well, a lady can change her mind, right?

In a prepared statement this month, Schlafly describes Palin as "an exemplar of all that is good and true."

"We couldn't have asked for a better VP pick," she said.

It says something remarkable about how the notion of motherhood has
changed when conservatives are championing the idea that a preoccupied,
constantly-on-the-road, working mom is an ideal to admire. [link]